Unemployment benefits extended for thousands in Illinois

SPRINGFIELD -- Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill extending unemployment benefits for thousands of Illinoisans Thursday, shortly after the measure cleared the General Assembly.

DOUG FINKE

SPRINGFIELD -- Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill extending unemployment benefits for thousands of Illinoisans Thursday, shortly after the measure cleared the General Assembly.

The House voted 109-1 Thursday to approve House Bill 1030, which not only extends benefits, but allows the state to make an interest payment due on money borrowed from Washington to pay those benefits.

The Senate approved the bill Wednesday.

“We don’t want 40,000 people to lose benefits,” said Rep. Ed Sullivan, R-Mundelein. “This is the proper way to handle the immediate problem.”

If Illinois hadn’t acted to take advantage of a recent change in federal unemployment law, the Department of Employment Security said 32,000 people would have lost their benefits in April. . Another 12,000 were slated to lose benefits in May.

The bill allows those people to continue receiving benefits for another 20 weeks. Federal money will cover the cost.

Illinois also had to take steps to make an $80 million interest payment in September due on money the state borrowed because its own unemployment trust fund had been exhausted by the extended recession. The bill includes a compromise reached by labor and industry negotiators to use money currently being spent to replenish the unemployment trust fund to be spent instead on the interest payment.

Still to be worked out, though, is a long-range plan to rebuild the unemployment trust fund. Business and labor interests are expected to negotiate throughout the summer on a plan to do that. Lawmakers expect to take up a solution during the fall veto session.

Both sides have an incentive to reach a compromise. The bill calls for unemployment benefits to be cut and business unemployment taxes to increase dramatically if no solution is found.